Beyond "Feeding the World": Rethinking Our Global Food System

Food for thought: thoughts about food

I am proud to have worked in agricultural research for 35 years. Many of my friends are farmers, agronomists or part of the rural community but I think that we need to reconsider the much quoted, “farmers feed the world”.

In the UK, farmers are under tremendous pressure from supermarkets, the government and very some peculiar weather patterns, yet they still get up every day dedicated to supplying high quality, heavily regulated products for way less than they are worth. Who else but a farmer pays retail and gets paid wholesale? I am sure that this is the case across the world to a greater or lesser extent.

But what are they feeding the world?

There are about 30,000 species of edible plants but only 150 of these are actually used for food – that is approximately 0.5%.

Of those 150 plant species, three quarters of the global diet is made up of just 12 of them – that is 0.04% of potential species across the world – plus 5 animal species.

Just under 75% of the crops grown from these 12 species is either cereal grain (rice, wheat or maize) or sugar (cane or beet). So that is starch or refined sugar making up 47% of all food grown on the planet – including meat and plant species outside of the 17 major ones.

To summarise, the global diet is essentially:

• Cereal grains                                                               27%

• All other “minor” species (plant & animal)                 25%

• Sugar                                                                          20%

• Animal products (meat, eggs & milk)                        12%

• Tubers (more starch!)                                                  7%

• Fruit (including tomatoes)                                          5%

• Legumes (soya)                                                           3%

• Vegetables                                                                 1%

But this is only what is eaten by humans. Crops are grown to feed livestock, for biofuels and for industrial processes. In fact only 55% of the calories from crops go towards feeding us; 36% go to feeding livestock and 9% goes to biofuels etc.

In industrialised nations; much of what is grown on farm is actually raw material for processed food and there is a large disconnect between the farmer and the end consumer, with the food processors and supermarkets standing in between them calling the shots. This is a very unnatural “food web” that has distorted dietary needs into unthinking convenience. This means that food has no value and the farmer gets no respect. Up to 25% of “Western” food calories are never consumed and are wasted by processors and consumers.

In developing countries, the amount of food crops not consumed is on a similar scale, but here the issue is spoilage between farm and market.

Regenerative agriculture is quite the topic at the moment but, when seen in the grand scheme of things, it is becoming more and more of a marketing scheme employed by the processors and supermarkets and yet another regulatory tool to bash the farmer.

Farmers do feed the world but through the prism of industry. There is enough land and resource for, the UK at least, to feed a growing population and be self sufficient. More than that; farmers can be the real health service and provide us with good quality, nutrient dense food and help fight the obesity and diabetes epidemics growing exponentially – people are fat yet under-nourished, a modern paradox.

To be truly regenerative, western agriculture must embrace diversity of food species, make farms part of the ecosystem and engage with the general population – first locally and then further afield. When the public understand the value of food; respect for the farmer will grow and waste will reduce. Ultimately, consumers have the real power but it is up to the agricultural community to make them aware of it.